


Goosebumps

by Dr_TJ_Eckleburg



Category: Beyond Re-Animator (2003), Bride of Re-Animator (1989), Re-Animator (1985)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-21
Updated: 2015-09-21
Packaged: 2018-04-22 17:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4844693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dr_TJ_Eckleburg/pseuds/Dr_TJ_Eckleburg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Herbert frequently sends a chill down Dan's spine--in both bad and good ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Goosebumps

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to Backwards-Blackbird on Tumblr for editing this one!

5.

 

It wasn’t the anger in his eyes.

Dan had seen Herbert angry plenty of times. Even when Dan stepped into the role of victim, he wasn’t frightened. He knew he’d never hurt his dearest Igor.

Now, as their gazes locked, he wasn’t so sure. Here they were, surrounded by others and still it felt as though they were the only two in the entire world. But underneath icy exteriors, sharp instruments of death and cold calculations, there was always the warmth of appreciation. No longer.

Dan told himself he was trying to protect Herbert as much as he was trying to protect the rest of Arkham. The thought that this wasn’t necessarily the case made his stomach churn.

No, it wasn’t the anger that sent chills piercing straight to Dan’s heart, his skin prickling, as they led Herbert from the courtroom.

It was sickening guilt. Guilt chilled Dan to the very marrow.

 

4.

 

Dan knew that in Herbert’s mind, Woman was inherently imperfect. Their unfortunate bride was at a severe disadvantage from the start, and yet she kept Dan tethered to Herbert’s side for just long enough. She served her disturbed purpose as well as she might.

Their new lab in an abandoned house some eighty miles from Arkham was sorely lacking a specimen for now, but criteria had been determined. Their search for the ideal man, some Herculean Adonis the world would adore, had been a fruitless one thus far.

But there was a frightening spark in Herbert’s gaze every time their eyes met--he had already found his ideal male. Nightmares of waking up strapped to the very gurney over which he and his partner worked haunted Dan. To be torn apart and rebuilt by those hands which had done such wonderful and horrible things… the very thought sent a shiver through his body, and there were nights now when Dan locked his bedroom door.

However, arousal complemented fear nicely, and Dr. West appreciated the way Dan looked down on his knees. There were still times--lips pursed, mouth tight around Herbert’s cock--that Dan could swallow his apprehension and let his partner’s possessive, wonderful, horrible hands thread through his hair.

 

3.

 

It was sometimes amusing how territorial they were.

Though they worked side by side in their basement-turned-laboratory, it was truly Dr. West’s domain. And when tension caused by such strenuous and ghastly work became too much, Dan appeased his partner. He didn’t particularly appreciate the comparison, but he was his Igor, there to assist his Frankenstein in whatever way necessary. Demeaning as it was, when Dan found himself craving the more base pleasures in life, he took whatever he could get.

But when Herbert found it in his heart to allow Dan to have him in various states of disarray and disrobement in Dan’s own bedroom, things were different. This was Dan’s territory. Herbert entered the room with narrowed and critical eyes. Apprehension creased his brow. However, he treasured his Igor enough to indulge him.

There was the patter of rain on the window pane one night and a seasonal bite in the air, but with some effort, Herbert eventually warmed under Dan’s touch. Though he was loquacious in his own domain, the only word Herbert could manage now was a hushed and reverent _“Daniel”_ that, when repeated, sent the most wonderful chill down Dan’s spine.

 

2.

 

It began before the Massacre even happened.

Meg first noticed it, the way Dan and Herbert were always so… _close_. For someone who appeared to harbor a severe dislike for the general population, Herbert West found as many ways as possible to invade Dan Cain’s personal space.

The brushing of two bodies together here, a hand clasped excitedly over another there, and then personal space was not only invaded but destroyed. Moments like those became some jolt of electricity to Dan after the Massacre, racing over his shivering skin. Herbert was always there to bring him back to life.

It was the sticky, oppressive jungle of Peru that first forced them into each other’s arms, something Herbert did not necessarily enjoy discussing, but graciously _allowed_ nevertheless.

 

1.

 

He laughed. The messy pile of blood, bones and fur that used to be Dan’s dead cat laid lifeless on the floor for a second time, and Herbert West _laughed_.

But there was something wonderfully hair-raising about the words that followed, the way they spoke over the corpse of the great things they could accomplish. The smaller man’s feverish gaze consumed Dan, and it held him there. To feel such passion about something, anything in life… it was foreign to the med school student who had taken each of the predictable steps life insisted he take.

Herbert showed him something extraordinary, and so Dan would help him, and so he would stay.

He would stay.


End file.
